Bakewell has no railway station, so the trip from London finishes on a bus. Take East Midlands Railway from London St Pancras to Derby, change there for the train to Matlock, then walk four minutes to Matlock Interchange for High Peak Buses’ TransPeak into Bakewell. Allow just under three hours; the main route took 2h57 on a typical weekday run and 2h56 at best.
The St Pancras to Derby leg is the long one, 86 minutes with two stops. From Derby the Matlock train takes 34 minutes and stops seven times, and after the walk to the Interchange the TransPeak needs 24 minutes and 22 stops to bring you into Bakewell.
Those three rides add up to 2h24, and everything beyond that is the short walk at Matlock and time spent waiting at Derby and Matlock. On a typical run the waiting came to a little under half an hour across the two changes, which is why the total stays just under three hours.
On the weekday we checked, the main route left St Pancras at 05:59 and then at two minutes past the hour from 07:02 to 16:02, the one exception being 08:03. Later two-minutes-past trains, from 17:02 to 20:02, still connected to Bakewell but took about 3h25. A second pattern left London at 35 minutes past the hour, from 07:35 to 15:35, and took about 3h25 as well, which gives you two chances an hour for much of the day.
For the shortest trip, take the 05:59 or a two-minutes-past train between 07:02 and 16:02, which brings the whole journey down to 2h57. The 09:05, 11:07, 13:07 and 15:07 from London also reached Bakewell via Matlock in about 2h55, so they are just as good if the clock suits.
Other early starts exist too. An 06:43 from London connected by the usual Matlock route, and an 06:08 went a different way, by train to Dore & Totley and a bus from there, which took about 4h25.
Get off the TransPeak at the Matlock Street stop. Despite the name, it is in Bakewell, 198 metres from Rutland Square, about three minutes on foot.
Driving from London is 157 miles on the M1 and takes around 3h20, so the car is about 25 minutes slower than the main train-and-bus route; what it saves is the two changes.
Journey times and changes below come from the rail and bus timetables for Tuesday 1 December 2026. Weekend and holiday timetables differ, so check the day you travel.
From London St Pancras on the weekday we checked: about hourly between 05:59 and 16:02.
By road it is about 157 miles from London to Bakewell, mostly via the M1 — roughly 3h 22m with clear roads. Car parks in Bakewell are listed on the Getting Here page.